moneyreallymatters.com

Free Shoprunner Membership with Qualified Amex card

Vijaianand — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:25:31 +0000

We all know Amazon Prime membership offered by Amazon which gives unlimited free 2-day shipping for any item order from Amazon. Similar to that Shoprunner is a shipping membership program provides free 2-day shhipping with no minimum order amount from a variety of online merchants including Newegg, Babies R Us, Blue Nile, Sports Authority, Drugstore.com, and GNC. It also allows you free return shipping and the ability to ship to any address, making it handy for gifts.

It is usually $79 per membership but American express card owners can signup for free. If you have an American Express card, you can now get a free 1-year membership at Shoprunner or a 1-year extension on an existing membership by going to shoprunner.com/americanexpress. You’ll need a consumer or business American Express card issued by an AmEx-affiliated bank (Starwood Preferred yes, Blue Cash Preferred yes, Business Gold yes, Costco yes, FIA/Fidelity no, Citibank no, prepaid versions no).

They also require your email id to market product so don’t give you regular email address. Just give your dummy or not so used email id so you won’t be bombarded with marketing emails. Check the fine prints, nothing very suspicious. I worried about the charge after the end of membership but no mention of it. Hopefully they won’t charge anything on the card.

US household wealth regains pre-recession peak – Fed Reserve

Vijaianand — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 21:05:43 +0000

I recently come across a report released by Fed Reserve published by Associated Press. The report was about the household wealth increasing in value and reaching to pre-recession levels. It was not surprise after seeing DOW surpasses the previous high and NASDAQ doing good which will certainly reflect in increase of wealth in many rich American portfolios. But it is good to see the Home appreciation is also helping many middle class consumers increasing their net worth.

Here is some snapshot from the report,

Federal Reserve research shows that surging stock prices and steady home appreciation have finally allowed Americans to recover the $16 trillion in wealth they lost during the Great Recession. The gains are helping to bolster the U.S. economy and could lead to additional spending and growth.

Most of the recovered wealth has come from higher stock prices that have been flowing mainly to wealthier Americans. By comparison, the middle class derives the bulk of its wealth in the form of home equity, which has risen much less.

According to the Fed, household wealth totaled $66.1 trillion as of Dec. 31 — 98 percent of the pre-recession peak. Further increases in stock and home prices this year mean that Americans’ net worth has since topped the pre-recession peak of $67.4 trillion, private economists report.

Read the full article here.

When there is a Will, it is your way…

Vijaianand — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:44:12 +0000

You might have heard about an old saying, “When there is a Will, there is a way”. I didn’t mean the will in you. Here I meant about the Last Will and Testament. Will is an important part in one’s financial planning. Everyone should have a will. The problem, many people delay or avoid making the decision because of some reasons. Texas A&M university Real Estate center published an article in their magazine last month. It says people delay due to two misperceptions. First, you cannot draft a will by yourself; you need an attorney. Second, you do not need a will if you own no property.

But that’s not the truth. Texas recognizes two types of written wills: a holographic will (one entirely in the deceased’s handwriting) and an attested will (one not entirely in the deceased’s handwriting), such as a typewritten will. A holographic requires no witnesses while an attested will requires at least two. So, in essence, you can draft your
own will, especially if it is holographic. That would at least help your surviving spouse and your children’s to assure your assets will be there for their future instead of state deciding it.

I would add another misconception as well. Many thing they don’t need a Will since they don’t have a large asset. That’s wrong. You still need a will for two reasons. First, if you have minor children, the will is the primary vehicle by which you appoint a guardian. Second, if you subsequently receive assets before or after you die, your will determines the distribution. You can also avoid Will in many cases by adding a Beneficiary or Joint Tenancy with your spouse but guardianship for kids is very important if both spouses decease. Don’t let that determined by state and sending your kids to Foster care.

I strongly recommend to check on your state legal requirement for making your Last Will and make your Will by drafting yourself and following the regulations to make it attested to avoid future issues. If you want to go one step further, you can also form a Revocable trust and avoid probate saving thousands of dollars. Please consult an attorney who can help you create a Trust. If you are Texas resident, read the detail article which TAMU Real Estate Center published and educate yourself and do the right thing for your loved ones.

After Super Bowl Party with Free Pizza from Papa John’s

Vijaianand — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:29:22 +0000

If gambling is not your expertise don’t worry, you can still win. You can win free pizza by guessing the Super Bowl coin toss correctly. You’ll get a unique coupon code for a free large 1-topping pizza redeemable at papajohns.com. You can try using multiple email id’s and get it right atleast ones because the terms and conditions clearly allow up to 4 four members (age 13+) in a single household to vote. Guaranteed free pizza dinner, retail value $12. You can even try using your kids email id since 4 people per house hold is allowed and get 2 free pizzas without paying any penny.

Visit PapaJohnsCoinToss.com and you must vote by February 2nd; code will be e-mailed out February 4th and will be valid until March 10th. No account needed, no credit card needed, no newsletter sign-up needed.

Source: papajohns email ad

Saving money, it never STOP’s…

Vijaianand — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 22:25:41 +0000

It’s New year.I know many people try to start new resolutions like work out every day, save more money or lose weight etc., But how far they go to resolve their resolutions is a big question. As per a survey, I was surprised to hear that 40-45% people who start a New year resolutions are actually able to keep it up. That’s really a good news.

Anyway, I don’t believe in resolutions. Because I feel its just a smart way to trick your mind that you are doing something good at the beginning of the year to make yourself feel good about it. After few weeks when things doesn’t go the way you expect, you will lose focus and forget about your resolution and move on with your usual life. I am not that type of a guy as many of you know. I am more goal focused. Put a goal in paper, plan for it and take action. That’s my strategy whether it comes to saving money for vacation or trying to keep fit. Whether its rain or shine, new year or not a new year, it doesn’t matter. Just continue with your plan. When it comes specifically to money, just continue to adapt the smart money management skills, Earn wisely and Save Smartly.

Continuing with the save smartly, I take time during the begining of the New year to try to look for ways to save few dollars monthly in utilities bills and any other expenditures. You all know the cable companies and TV companies are trying to make money to charging rental fees for their devices. Dish/DirecTV charges for using their DVR for recording and similarly comcast charges for renting their cable modem. I thought they were only charging $2-$3 until I found its now $7. But I never knew that you can buy your own cable modem and use it instead of their modem. If you do that, you can avoid their rent fee. I was told my coworker last week and I was really surprised. How couldn’t I missed that for all these years? How many of you knew about it? I been paying them monthly all these years.

After hearing about it, I immediately jumped on it and tried to do the research. My coworker already did some research and shared about the modem he is planning to purchase. But I still went and chatted with Comcast guys over the chat and confirmed about it and got information about modem which can be purchased outside and approved by Comcast. You can find the list of approved modems here. I went to Amazon, my favorite shopping site and found few good modems. Motorola SurfBoard Docsis 2.0 and Docsis 3.0 are the finalists. After talking to my coworker, I finalized and went with Docsis 3.0 since 2.0 is in end of life and Comcast might not support at last point.

I paid $76 for this modem which came in 2 days and I had to call Comcast to set up my new modem. Got it working and took their modem and returned it. I will $7/month going forward every month and after 11 months modem is paid off fully. After that, $7 saving from monthly bill that’s like $84 per year or may be more if they increase it later point. I don’t have to worry about it. Now I am looking to find whether this is any way to save on the DVR charges. Does anyone know the way to get rid of this DVR monthly rental charges?

Start looking at your expenditures and find ways to save. One dollar saved is Two dollars earned!!

Warm wishes…

Vijaianand — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:11:34 +0000

My New Gadget – Google Nexus 7′ with Mobile Data

Vijaianand — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 20:03:06 +0000

After a long wait, I finally able to find a good and decent tablet with configuration which is packed with up to date technology and capable of connecting 3G or Mobile data for just $299. That’s Google Nexus 7 Android tablet, which I ordered last week and will be delivered today. I will give my first hand experience soon after I play with it. Now I am going to tell you why I selected Google Nexus 7.

Obviously it is not for Google’s name. I am not brand addict. As many of you know, I am a frugular and I only look for big bang for the buck. Google Nexus 7′ with Mobile was just made available for public last week and I got special notification from Google about it. So I went ahead and did some research to see whether it is worth looking for my needs. Every website I visited for example cnet.com, engadget.com all gave hands down and high remarks about Nexus 7 which I was totally surprised. They compared Kindle Fire, Samsumg Tab 2 and other comparable tablets with Nexus 7 and declared it has sole winner for the price and configuration.

What’s my Need & Want?
Reviews may say its all good and dandy but whether it’s suits my need and want is the key. I have a IPAD Versoin 1 which I bought from my coworker. It is used obviously but does what it suppose to do. It doesn’t have lot of things like camera, mobile, speed and space. It works almost all the time as an apple product. But I wanted another tablet so I can use for my real estate business away from home without WiFi. I been using IPhone for that purpose all this time and it did help me but at some point it is annoying to type a full email in IPhone. So I really need a bigger screen and d also I wanted one tablet at home for kids purpose. So I been looking for a tablet to take over my IPhone job more importantly.

First choice, IPAD 3 with 3G which is great but almost rakes upto $699 which is too much for my budget. For my budget, I can only get an android tablet. I looked at Samsung 10 and 7′ seems to have good configuration with lot of external ports but pricing for mobile is around $499. That’s when I came to know of Google tablets and thought let me wait it out. I saw Google Nexus 10 and 7 came out recently and only Nexus 7 was expected to come out with 3G/Mobile. I did all my research on the basic Nexus 7 WIFI tablet to see whether the size is too small, configuration capabilities compared to other tablets. Everything was encouraging and especially price point was really attractive. I checked on ATT mobile data plan which is only $15 for 250MB is good is not bad as well. So I ended up ordering last Thursday(Nov 15,2012) and hope to get it today.

I hope to check it out and see how it performs with WIFI. Later I plan to get mobile data connection with ATT and try it out on the road. Will update you all soon.

Today Groupon deal – Willowbrook Movie Tavern – 2 for 1(50% off)

Vijaianand — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:26:59 +0000

Just got today’s Groupon offer for Movie Tavern in Willowbrook which is just couple of mins from my place and close to FM 1960 and SH249 junction for many. It is great offer if you plan to go to the movie before Nov 28, 2012. Here is deal info,

Choose Between Two Options

$8 for two movie tickets for Sunday through Thursday (a $16 value)
$9 for two movie tickets for Friday and Saturday (a $17.50 value)

Tickets are good for any non-3-D movie screening; Pay extra free for 3D movies

Movie Tavern is like Studio grill where you can watch movie and order good food to munch while enjoying the movie. It is a cool place to take your kids and have fun.

Don’t miss it, go watch movie for cheap and have fun!

Sept: National Life Insurance Month – Did you Insure yourself?

Vijaianand — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 15:02:19 +0000

I came across few blogs about the Life Insurance Month and thought to share my view as well.

Let me share the fact first about life insurance in America. According to the industry research group LIMRA,

30 percent of US households have no life insurance whatsoever. Today there are only 11 million fewer American households covered by life insurance compared with six years ago. A majority of US families either have no life insurance or not enough, leaving them one accident or terminal illness away from a financial catastrophe for their loved ones.

People asked me many times, why do we need to have life insurance? It’s a waste of money and I don’t get to use it. Things will take care themselves. No it won’t. Believe me, you will not be there to see it but your family will end up suffering from it. Just think about it for a second, we insure things like Home, Auto, even TV’s these days have insurance. These can replaced but what about your life. Your life is irreplaceable and priceless to your family and don’t you think you need to insure yourself.

Life insurance provides your family with financial stability and security when it matters most. It is a must for any family with dependents so it can buy your loved ones time to grieve and don’t have to worry about paying the bills after your gone. It pays off debts, provides surviving family members financial support, stream of income to live on for a period of time and give them hope to start their new life. It keeps families in their homes and helps your kids to continue their education even after you are gone.

When I first talked to my wife about life insurance she didn’t want me to talk about it. But explained her slowly and made her to understand the needs and benefits. I talked about it pretty often and now she feels comfortable talking about life after my death. That’s what you should. Talk to your partner about it and make them understand and get them ready because life happens. No one likes to think about dying. But if your loved ones will suffer financially when you die, it’s a subject you have to address immediately and make necessary step possible to cover them if you love them most.

The nonprofit organization LIFE Foundation coordinates Life Insurance Awareness Month during September of each year. LIFE is joined in this educational initiative by more than 100 of the nation’s leading insurance companies and industry groups. LIFE’s website is the leading source of objective information about life insurance. Let’s learn together more about the benefits of life insurance and try to spread the word around and also make the first step to insure yourself for the benefit of your family.

Here are some resources for you to check out,
Real Life Stories Video
Key Questions and Answers
Life Insurance Need calculator

To conclude, if you don’t have any type of life insurance, think about taking a term life insurance for a start. If you do have one, make sure it’s enough to cover your family immediate expenses after you death and prolonged financial support. Don’t just assume your employer will provide the insurance and check and add more insurance if needed. Go ahead and take charge of your life insurance situation today and rest easier knowing your loved ones would be taken care of if something were to happen to you.

Takeout & Delivery $10 Value for $1 – LivingSocial

Vijaianand — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 16:57:00 +0000

Few months ago LivingSocial.com has offered this deal and I bought and used it as well. I used to get Quzinos Sub which I want to give it a try instead of my favorite Subway. They are offering this deal again and only 1 day left. I just bought again. Try it by going to Livingsocial.com. One catch, you gotta use the full amount in single order. Do check out the restaurants nearby your place before you purchase it. No other hidden charges except delivery charges or you can take out depending on the restaurants.

Give it a try, it is just $1 for $10 worth of food.